"I can't rest to-night," said Lethwaite,
suddenly rising, and putting on his great-coat and
hat. "It is the night before the trial, and I
must hear the last tidings, and whether any
new discovery may have been made at the
eleventh hour. You shall come with me, Goodrich.
Even you and I may be of some use or
other—who knows?"

"Ah, sir, who knows, indeed?" replied the
old fellow, highly gratified.

They were soon on their way to the house in
Beaumont-street.

They found poor Gilbert on that night still
engaged with his preparations for the morrow.
He was looking sadly ill and worn. Recent
events, and the state of horrible anxiety in which
he was now continually kept, had told upon him
to a terrible extent, and he had got very pale
and thin within the last few days, so that any
one would have noticed it.

"Well, how do you get on?" asked
Lethwaite, with an attempt at cheerfulness.

"Hardly as I could wish," replied the poor
fellow. " I am obliged to keep her spirits up
as well as I can; but I am miserably uneasy.
The case against us is so strong, and ours wanting
in so much."

"Goodrich and I were sitting talking about
it all," said his friend, "and I could not resist
the desire to see you and inquire if there was
any fresh news. So we just came along."

"I am very glad you did. I was driving
myself half mad, and unfitting myself for
tomorrow's duties altogether." Gilbert paused a
little, and then went on: "Do you know what I
was thinking of doing, Julius; I was thinking of
getting some one to come here and engage in a
final search in her room—Miss Carrington's
room up-stairs—in the bare hope that something
may have been overlooked in previous examinations.
My reason for wanting some one besides
myself to engage in this search is, that I am
incompetent to appear as a witness——"

"Why, we are the very people," said
Lethwaite, interrupting him. "Come, let us begin
at once. Jonathan here has a great mechanical
turn, you know, and nothing will escape him,
depend upon it."

"I was just going to say," continued
Penmore, "that, if you didn't mind, I would so
much rather have you two than any strangers
coming about the place. It is the last chance
of strengthening the view which I have taken
of the case. But I warn you that it is no sinecure
I have proposed; the search I ask for is to
be a thorough one."

Lethwaite and the old clerk hastened to
reassure him on this point, and the three, Gilbert,
Julius Lethwaite, and Jonathan Goodrich, went
up together to the room occupied by the late Miss
Carrington, and proceeded to engage in a strict
and final search for some indication which might
favour the decision which Penmore had come to,
that it was knowingly, and of her own free will,
that the deceased had partaken of the drug by
which she died; that it had not been given to
her, but that she had taken it. It was a
connecting link of the last importance—if he hoped
to prove that this theory was correct—that he
should be able to produce the bottle in which
the poison had been kept, and from which she
had poured it out and drunk it.

The search now to be engaged in by these
three—all deeply interested in its result—was
to be complete and exhaustive. The room was
to be subdivided into separate portions, to every
inch of which (literally) the fullest and most
elaborate examination was to be given. Of the
subdivisions each one of the persons engaged in
the search was to have one allotted to him, and
all the objects of furniture, or whatever else
such allotment contained, he was to scrutinise,
with senses sharpened to the very utmost. The
bed, the chimney, and fireplace, the wardrobe,
the bureau, or escritoire, the chest of drawers,
nay, the very chairs and tables, the floor and
walls of the room, were now, it was resolved, to
be subjected to the minutest and most
microscopic scrutiny. A pair of steps was provided,
that even the cornice from which the curtains
hung might be examined; there were screw-
drivers and hammers at hand, and the carpet
was taken up, in order that any hidden receptacle
in the boards of the flooring—should any such
exist—might be brought to light. In one word,
the apartment was to be searched inch by inch,
from end to end, and from side to side, no
cranny to be left unexplored.

Methodically and systematically each man
took his appointed section, and bit by bit,
beginning with the portion of the floor and wall
of the room which came into his division, and
going on from thence to each article of furniture
or loose object which came within it, proceeded
with this last and most exhaustive search, on
which so much depended.

Exhaustive, indeed, that search was. Every
drawer in any chest of drawers or cabinet was
taken out, and besides that, its contents were
examined, the drawer itself was tested, lest it
might have any false bottom or false back used
as a place of concealment. The covering of a
chair, which showed signs of having been ripped
open and nailed down again, was once again
torn off and the stuffing ransacked throughout.
No pains were spared, no possible place, where
anything as large as an ounce phial could be
hidden, was left untested, however hopeless it
might seem. If there was the shadow of a doubt
about anything, each man was ready to give his
advice to the other, or help him if physical force
was needed. A board in the flooring which
shook, though but very little, when trodden
upon, was forced up, and the wood-work beneath
rigidly examined. Julius Lethwaite, into whose
section the fire-grate came, got his arm through
the register, and felt and groped about in the
chimney in spite of soot and dirt, thinking that
a place of concealment where what they sought
for might haply lie hidden. And indeed, for a
brief season, those who were engaged in this
search did think that this gentleman's courageous
exploration was to be rewarded with success.
In that dark space above the register his hand